Bridging
When girl scouts fulfill the requirements for moving from one level to the next, they can earn their Bridging award. What works well is if you have a troop or group of girls who are ready to bridge at two consecutive levels -- the older girls get credit for 'passing it on' and the younger girls get credit for 'finding out what the older scouts do.' Note: Scouts do NOT have to earn the award to move on to the next level. They can simply register for the next level - completing the Bridging requirements just lets you earn the actual rainbow bridge badge. Bridging Activities Bridging Step One: Pass It On! Inspire younger girls to become Girl Scouts by sharing what it's like to be a one. Scouts show younger girls or younger scouts ready to move up to the next level what it is like at that level. Have the older girls discuss what they have done, and what new activities and leadership opportunities they have at the next level. Help the younger girls earn their first badge at the higher level with a fun activity. * Earn the Promise Center. You can teach them the Girl Scout Promise, then take them through the Girl Scout Law. Share a story about how you learned to put the Promise and Law into action. * Earn a Try-it. We had our current Brownies work with our Daisies to earn their Senses (Brownie Try-it). They all worked through stations about each sense. Find out What Girl Scouts Do at the next level Spend time with some scouts at the next higher level to see what it's like. * Earn a badge at the new level. Plan a Ceremony Help plan, practice, and carry out a Bridging ceremony. Bridging Ceremonies Daisies to Brownies For Daisies moving up to Brownies, this is actually called Bridging, and there are many End-of-Year ceremony programs for this on the Internet. Please post any suggestions for this here. Daisy petals ceremony. Our first year (after finishing all 10 petals) we made poster board cutouts of each petal and the promise center (each as large as we could get out of one poster board sheet). On the back we put a short, one-sentence speech about what part of the GS Law the petal was about and one sentence about what the girls did to earn that petal. We had a large troop with both kindergarten and 1st graders, so we were able to pair up the girls that couldn't read well yet with girls that could read better. Each petal pair came in one and a time and gave their speeches (we gave them copies to practice with the week before, plus glued the speeches to the back of the petals they carried in, so they could just read them if they needed to). For example, "The light blue petal taught us about being honest and fair," read one scout; then her partner read, "To earn this petal we talked about playing by the rules and practiced being fair by dividing things equally." I think this was a good way for the scouts and the parents to remember what they did throughout the year and why. We also asked our school principal to come and give a speech (lesson learned: give them a strict time limit!). At that time, we didn't have a bridge, so we borrowed one from a daycare that some of the parents were still using. Bake-a-Brownie Skit. For our second year, we did the Bake a Brownie skit tinyzippers.com/scoutsgirlhelp/daisytobrowniebridging.html, but modified it to talk about what we did throughout the year. If you know of anyone who is renovating their kitchen, ask if they have any large boxes that you can have (such as an oven, refrigerator, washer, or dryer box). I ended up calling Lowe's for a refrigerator box, which they were helpful enough to save for me. I had to cut it down a bit to make it the size of an oven, and spray paint it white. I cut out an oven door flap on the front for the girls to climb in and out of as they "baked" into Brownies (they thought this was great fun and ended up playing with it for an hour or so after the ceremony was over). I cut out four circle "burners" from black construction paper to put on the top. During the skit, the girls climbed into the oven, closed the door, and took off their Daisy uniforms. Then when they were done 'baking,' they came out again. (Since we have a multi-level troop with some new Daisies, I collapsed the box and stashed it in my shed hoping to use it for future ceremonies!) Brownies to Juniors Juniors to Cadettes * From the Scribe badge, share your essay about your Favorite Girl Scout memory. Write a 1-2 page letter or essay about your favorite Girl Scout memory, activity, etc. with a special thank-you for those that helped you get into scouting and made it so fun. Read it (or part of it) to everyone at your Bridging ceremony. Cadettes to Seniors Seniors to Ambassadors Ambassador Graduation Resources Invitations * Girl Scout vest invitations Refreshments Lots of rainbow refreshment ideas on the Internet. * Rainbow fruit kebabs. On wooden skewers put: red grapes (purple), blueberries (blue), honeydew melon or green grapes (green), pineapple (yellow), cantaloupe or orange slices (orange), and strawberries (red). * Rainbow candy packets using colored Twizzlers and mini marshmallows. Special Locations * Madame Tussauds is now offering bridging ceremonies at its Washington, D.C. location. For more information, please contact jule.wiser@madametussaudsdc.com.